Folded bus bar leadframe and method of making

ABSTRACT

A leadframe has a bus bar extending between two lead fingers on the leadframe. The bus bar and lead fingers are etched to reduce the thickness thereof, and the bus bar is folded under the lead finger, but insulated therefrom by a strip of insulating material. An adhesive is applied to the bus bar to attached it and the leadframe to the surface of a semiconductor chip.

This is a division, of application Ser. No. 07/941,596, filed Sep. 8,1992, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,999.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to leadframes for semiconductor devices, and moreparticularly to a bus bar on a lead frame which is folded and underlieslead fingers on a leadframe that are attached to contact areas on thesemiconductor device.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In many semiconductor devices, bus bars are used to distribute operatingvoltages to several contact areas on the semiconductor device, and toprovide a ground bus to individual contact areas. The bus bar is usuallyin the same general location or position of the lead finger tips. Also,if the bus bar extends the length of the semiconductor device, the leadwires between the lead fingers and the contact areas of thesemiconductor device must extend over the bus bar to make contactbetween the lead fingers and the contacts areas. When the lead wireextend over the bus bar, there is the possibility of short between thebus bar and lead wires. Also the extending of the lead wire to over thebus bar requires longer lead wire making the lead wire more susceptibleto sagging and shorting against the bus bar.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is to a leadframe in which a bus bar is formed as a partof the lead frame and spans, for example, the outer two lead fingers ofthe leadframe. The bus bar is bent under the other lead fingers and isinsulated therefrom to prevent an electrical connection between the busbars and lead fingers extend over the bus bar.

The lead fingers and bus bar are etched to reduce the thickness thereofso that the thickness of the lead fingers, the bus bar and theinsulating material between the bus bar and lead fingers all together isapproximately the same thickness as the original lead fingers and busbar before etching.

A strip of adhesive is placed under the bus bar to attached the leadframe to the surface of the semiconductor device. With the bus barfolded under, and insulated from, contact may be made from the variouslead fingers to the contact areas on the semiconductor device withoutwires extend over the bus bar.

The technical advance represented by the invention as well as theobjects thereof will become apparent from the following description of apreferred embodiment of the invention when considered in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawings, and the novel features set forth in theappended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a leadframe as etched and indicating additionallyetched areas;

FIG. 2 shows a folded bus bar;

FIG. 3 shows etching of the leadframe leads and bus bar;

FIG. 4 shown another method of etching the leadframe fingers and busbar;

FIG. 5 illustrates attaching bond wires between the leadframe fingersand bus bar to the semiconductor contacts;

FIG. 5a shows the insulating tape pattern between the folded bus bar andleadframe fingers; and

FIG. 5b is an enlarged view of the folded connection between the two endlead fingers and the bus bar.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 is a leadframe 10 having a plurality of lead fingers 12. Two leadfingers 11, on each end of the array of lead fingers 12 are connected toeach other by a bus bar 13. The parts of lead fingers 11 and 12, and thebus bar 13, enclosed within the area bounded by rectangle 14 are etchedto reduce the thickness of the lead fingers 11 and 12 and bus bar 13.The leads and bus bar can be etched in several ways to reduce thethickness of the leads and bus bar, as hereinafter described. Bus bar 13is folded under lead fingers 12 and 13 in a subsequent process step.

FIG. 2 shows leadframe 10 after bus bar 13 has been folded under leadfingers 11 and 13. A strip of insulating material is placed on bus bar13 before folding so that it does not short against lead fingers 12.

FIG. 3 illustrates one method of etching lead fingers 11 and 12 and busbar 13. Only lead finger 11 and bus bar are shown in FIG. 3. The end oflead fingers 12 would be etched in a similar manner to reduce thickness.The lead fingers originally are, for example, 3 mils thick. Lead fingeris first etched to reduce a portion 11a as indicated at step 18. Asecond etching, step 17, reduces the thickness of etched portion 11c to1 mil thick. Bus 13 is also etched to reduce its thickness to 1 mil.After reducing the lead fingers and bus bar, bus bar 13 is folded underthe lead fingers 11 and 12. A strip of insulating material 20approximately 1 mil thick is placed between bus 13 and lead fingers 11and 12. A strip of tape or adhesive 21 is placed under the folded busbar attaching the bus bar to the surface of a semiconductor chip 9. Thetotal thickness of lead finger 11c, insulator 20, bus bar 13 areapproximately 3 mils, the original thickness of lead fingers 11 and 12and bus bar 13. Therefore, the folded under bus bar, lead fingers andinsulating material doe not increase the overall thickness of thesemiconductor chip, lead and package.

FIG. 4 illustrates a second method of etching the lead fingers and thebus bar. As, illustrated, lead finger 11 is etch from the top to fromthe reduced section step 11d. Lead finger 11 is also etched from thebottom at two steps, the first step at 23 and the second step at 22. Theoriginal thickness of lead FIGS. 11 and 12 is about 3 mils. theresulting etched thickness of lead finger 11e is approximately 1 mil.Lead finger 11e is folded at its connection to bus bar 13 such that busbar is folded under the ends of lead fingers 11 and 12. A strip ofinsulating material 20 is placed between bus bar 13 the end of leadfingers 11 and 12. A strip of tape or adhesive 21 is placed under thefolded bus bar 13 to attached the bus bar/lead finger assembly to thesurface of a semiconductor chip.

FIG. 5 shows the leadframe structure of the present invention attachedto a semiconductor chip. Each of leadframe leads 11 and 12 are securedto the semiconductor device through insulating material 21, insulatingthe lead fingers from bus bar 13. Bus bar 13 is attached to the surface31 of semiconductor chip 30 by tape/adhesive 21. Each lead finger 12 isattached to a bond pad 26 on semiconductor chip 30 by a bond wire 25.Bus bar 13 is attached to various bond pads 26 by bond wires 28. Asillustrated the structure of the invention permits connections by thevarious lead fingers without crossing over a bus bar, and the bus bar isconnected to desired contact pads of the semiconductor along the lengthof the semiconductor chip without interfering with other connection onthe semiconductor chip. In the configuration of FIG. 5, the lead fingersare etch to one-half the original thickness. also, lead fingers 11 havebeen detached from the bus bar 13 at the end of the lead finger suchthere is no electrical connection between lead fingers 11 and bus bar13.

FIG. 5a shows the shape of the insulating tape between the leadframefingers 11, 12 and the bus bar 13. Insulating tape 20 has fingers 20athat extends under the leadframe fingers and bus bar 13.

FIG. 5b is an enlarged view of the end of lead finger 11. In thisembodiment, lead finger 11 is folded at 40 and wrapped around andconnected to bus bar 13 as illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4. In theembodiment of FIG. 5, since the connection between the two end leadfingers 11 and bus bar 13 (as in FIG. 2) has been severed, any of thelead fingers can be attached to bus bar 13, for example with bond wiressuch as bond wires 28, FIG. 5, to provide either a power bus or groundbus.

What is claimed:
 1. A method for making a leadframe having a plurality of lead fingers and a bus bar attached to at least two of said lead fingers, comprising the steps of;etching the bus bar and a portion of said lead fingers; placing a strip of insulating material on said bus bar; folding said bus bar at the points of attachment to said at least two lead fingers, said folded bus bar underlying said plurality of lead fingers such that the strip of insulating material is between said bus bar and said plurality of lead fingers.
 2. The method according to claim 1, including the step of applying an adhesive material to the bus bar for attaching the bus bar to the surface of a semiconductor device.
 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the step of etching the bus bar and a portion of the plurality of lead fingers etches the thickness of the bus bar and lead fingers to a thickness from one-third to one-half the original thickness.
 4. The method according to claim 1, including the step of detaching the at least two lead fingers from the bus bar such that there is an electrical connection between at least one lead finger and the bus bar. 